ARM promises console-quality 3D gaming on mobiles

Historically, graphics quality on mobile phones has lagged in comparison to those displayed on a dedicated gaming console or PC. But the days of clunky mobile gaming graphics are soon to be a thing of the past, according to mobile device CPU manufacturer ARM.

Yesterday at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the company unveiled its new 3D graphics acceleration software for mobile devices, the ARM Mali-JSR297, touting it as the “first product to enable developers of Java applications to take advantage of the latest hardware graphics features found in recent GPUs.”

The new software’s main selling point is its compliance with the OpenGL ES 2.0 spec, which is designed specifically for embedded systems such as mobile handsets and video game consoles. The semiconductor firm in its press release promises 3D gaming on mobile devices, as seen in “high-end gaming consoles and PCs,” despite the limited display size.

We can expect the Mali-JSR297 software to launch in Q3 2008, after the JSR297 mobile 3D graphics standard is ratified, so hopefully ARM will be able to back its claims of console-like gaming experience on mobile phones, sometime next year.